Charlie's Story
by Kaffy
Summary: A Caroline and Richard story told from Charlie's perspective.


**Charlie's Story**

We all knew it would happen. From the beginning, I sensed it. And I'm not the smartest person in the world, so if I could see it, it had to be there, right? So, why couldn't they see it? Oh well, they see it now. And that's all that counts. Who am I talking about? Well, Richard and Caroline of course, who else would I be talking about, Annie and Del? Yeah...right, like that would happen. Anyway, I'm getting off the subject, which I guess happens pretty frequently, this story is about Richard and Caroline. 

First off, let me introduce myself. My name is Charlie. I don't really know what my last name is. See, I'm adopted. But again, this story isn't about me, it's about Richard and Caroline. Caroline draws Caroline in the City. It's a cartoon strip. She also draws greeting cards, that's how I met her. I work for, well, Eagle Greeting Cards, now; it used to be Cassidy Greeting Cards. Del runs the company. He used to date Caroline, but it's strictly platonic now. But that's how I first met Caroline. Then I met Richard through Caroline. He works for her; he colors in her merchandise. I'll be honest; he's kind of mean, but not to Caroline. He could never be mean to her, but he's mean to pretty much everyone else. He really wants to be an artist, but all of his paintings look like ketchup, and no one really wants to buy them. Don't think that I don't like Richard, I do. He's just a little mean sometimes, especially to me 'cause he thinks I'm stupid. And maybe compared to him, I am, 'cause he's really smart. But I'm not nearly as dumb as everyone thinks I am. And I knew Caroline was perfect for him before he did, so he can shut his pie-hole. 

I guess I have to start with the day he came to work for her. I mean, that's when everything started anyway. Basically, Richard came to work for Caroline while she was still with Del. Then, she and Del broke up right before Christmas. I think that's when I first noticed that he was looking at her kind of funny. I didn't realize that he was in love at first. I mean, that idea was preposterous. He was such a sour-puss all the time and she's such a little ray of sunshine. There was no way that he would be interested in her. But, he did get that look in his eyes sometimes. 

Anyway, Caroline and Del decided to get back together, and even better, get married. Richard was against it from the start. That's when I started to suspect. He told her the next morning that he thought there were better options. As soon as I heard that, I knew he was talking about himself, either that or Jujubes, but I don't think he'd like those. Anyway, as the engagement went on, Richard was more sarcastic than ever. It was pretty obvious to me that he was trying to push Caroline away. I don't know why he didn't notice that it's impossible to do that with Caroline. She always worms her way right back in. 

Anyway, 2 days before the wedding Richard took off. I don't know why, but he went to Paris for 3 months. When he got back to New York, he got the coolest job ever. He worked at an Ice Cream You Scream. He even got to wear a cool hat with a cone on it. But he quit when Caroline offered him his old job. 

See, she didn't marry Del after all. She got cold feet in the end. Richard told her about some nonsense called "sincere amore: the kind of love you never have to question." She didn't think her and Del had it, so they broke up. But when Richard came back, she was seeing Joe. I like Joe. At least I liked Joe, I don't like him so much anymore. You'll know why in a little bit. But I liked him then: he had tons of fun stuff to play with. He's only 23, so he still has some of the fun stuff you get right after college. 

But back to the story, Richard couldn't tell Caroline how he felt because Caroline was with Joe. Man, does he hate Joe, too. I thought he hated Del, but he hates Joe even more. His sarcastic jibes are a lot worse for him, but Joe just lets them slide. 

That pretty much brings us up to speed. This is where we get into the real guts of the story. See, today is New Year's Day, and Richard came down from Caroline's room in just his pants this morning. Hehe, I wonder what they were doing. (I'm winking in case you can't see.)  

Ok, stop getting ahead of yourself, Charlie, they want to know the whole story. Caroline decided to throw a New Year's Eve Party this year. Don't look at me like that, not everyone goes to Time Square in New York. Anyways, the party was pretty much underway, almost all of the guests were there, but we couldn't find Joe anywhere. Caroline was getting really upset, and he wasn't answering the phone. She started to cry, so of course, Richard volunteered to go over to Joe's to see if he find him. I offered to go too, 'cause I thought that maybe I'd get to play with his PlayStation or something. Richard seemed annoyed that I was going, but I didn't really care, he'd deal. 

Anyway, we got there, but he wasn't answering the door. But, the door was unlocked. Richard told me not to go in, but I did anyway. Thank god we did too, that's when we saw them. Joe was in bed with some girl. Afterwards, he told us it was his ex, her name was Lisa. But that's besides the point. You should have seen Richard. I've never seen anyone as mad as Richard was. He yelled and screamed that Caroline was crying because she was worried and all he was doing was fucking his ex-girlfriend. Then he started in how Joe was such a horrible person and she deserved someone better than some kid who thought fidelity was a 'grown-up' thing. He left slamming the door, leaving me alone with Joe. Joe pleaded with me to keep Caroline from finding out. 

That was when I started to not like him anymore. I know I'm not too smart and sometimes I can be pretty weird, but I can usually tell when someone's taking advantage of me. He just saw me as the Charlie the stupid pushover who probably didn't realize how serious the situation was. But he had just hurt one of my best friends. I told him to...well....that wouldn't be appropriate to say, suffice to say that it wasn't nice, then I skated off after Richard. 

The whole way back to Caroline's, Richard was cursing Joe. "That bastard, how could he do this?" "How am I supposed to tell her? Selfish dick. Ugh." Mostly comments along those lines. I just kind of let him vent. I wasn't about to defend Joe, not that he deserved it, and Richard can say things so much better than I can, so I let him rant and rave the whole way back. 

As soon as we walked in, Caroline jumped on us asking where Joe was. I guess he didn't even have the decency to call her and tell her after we left. He left it all to Richard. Stupid guy. Richard pulled Caroline aside. I could tell from the expressions on her face that he was telling her everything. She started crying and he pulled her into a hug. By that time, all of her guests were watching, wondering why she was so upset. A couple people asked me if Joe was hurt or dead, but I said no, nothing like that. Caroline ran up to her room as soon as everyone started looking at her. Richard looked at me, then at Annie, then ran up the stairs after her. 

Now, I guess I have to mention here, that Annie knows how Richard feels too. Hell, I think we all knew. She was about to follow Richard up the stairs, but Del caught her first. It gave me an opportunity to go over there and explain what happened to them. 

"Ok," Del said to me, "What happened?" 

"Well, we knocked on the door and nobody answered, but it was opened so I opened it." 

Annie rolled her eyes, "You shouldn't have done that, but go ahead." 

"Well, we saw Joe and he was with another woman, if you know what I mean." 

Del grabbed his coat, "That son of a bitch...." 

Annie chased him out the door. At that point in time pretty much everyone at the party realized that something was wrong. Most of them grabbed their coats and left, not wanting to get too involved. But, like always, I didn't care. There were good munchies. Annie and Del came in a few minutes later. Del stayed in the kitchen with me, and Annie went upstairs to try and comfort Caroline, but came down almost as soon as she went up, with a stupid smirk on her face. 

Del looked up and asked, with his mouth full, "I thought you were going to take care of her?" 

"Um, Richie's taking care of that." 

After that, everything kind of got hazy. See, I was drinking champagne while I ate. I remember Del giving Annie a weird look and Annie just smiling at him. 

The next thing I remember was waking up the next morning on Caroline's couch while her and Annie were talking in the kitchen. They thought I was still asleep. I caught them in the middle of the conversation. 

First, Caroline said, "Yes, Annie, we're a couple now." 

"Aren't you going to tell me how?" 

Caroline laughed. "Well, I was really upset and went on this rant about how I'm completely flawed and totally unlovable. And he kept telling me that I was wrong. So I asked him why no one would stay with me, and he said that I hadn't found the right guy yet." 

"Yeah, ok, and?" 

"Well, the tone of his voice made me look up and I saw him, and I just, I leaned in and kissed him." 

"Yeah...and?" 

"And, let's just say he consoled me for the rest of the night." 

"Wow, was it any good?" 

"No comment." 

"That bad, huh?" 

Caroline laughed, "No, not bad, but no comment." 

I decided to let them know I was there. I pretended to be really groggy so they wouldn't know that I'd heard the whole conversation. "Where am I?" 

"Oh, you're up. You're at my apartment, Charlie." 

"Oh." Just then, Richard came down in just his pants. He looked at me and Annie like a deer caught in headlights, then smiled and kissed Caroline on the cheek. I played it cool, I told you I was smarter than everyone thought, but it can be useful to hide that sometimes. "Wait, why is Richard in just his pants and kissing Caroline?" 

They all looked at me and started laughing. Then Caroline squeaked out, "If you don't know Charlie, then I'm not going to be the one to explain it to you. Why don't you go home and sleep off the rest of the champagne." 

"Ok, good idea." 

Then I left. Looking back now, I'd say that I'm glad I got to see so much of such an important day. Who would have ever thought that they would be so happy together? Not me, but oh well, I'm happy for them just the same. 

**The End**


End file.
